Watch Out - Spiders About!

[arpie]

Hi guys

The other day, when I went for the paddle/fish. I popped my yak shoes on without a thought & felt something soft against my toes. I nearly didn't remove the shoe, then acted on first instinct & took it off & shook it ....... and out fell a rather large spider!! It really did give me a scare, as some years back, I had 'discovered' a spider in a rag when cleaning the floor of our campervan & it bit me on the finger ....... resulting in the ambos being called, but all was well - luckily it wasn't a poisonous one, but it gave me quite a fright too, I can tell you!

http://www.fishraide...=1

After a couple of thumps with the shoe to calm it down, I checked my foot to make sure I hadn't been bitten (and hadn't) took some pics of the offending beast! It was darker than most spiders I'd seen & had obvious stripes, so wasn't sure if it was a Huntsman or Wolf, so sent these pics to a known Spider expert & he identified it as a Huntsman - which CAN give a nasty bite, but rarely does! After I had massaged it's body with my foot & whacked it into submission - you can see by the pics that it wasn't long for this world!! Mind you, it DID have a good set of fangs!

With all the rain that we are having it is normal for spiders to seek out dryer spots & they like snug dark places, like shoes - and the advice of my father from 40+ years ago - ALWAYS SHAKE YOUR SHOES BEFORE PUTTING THEM ON - resounded in my ears ....... so I was silly not to do it on this occasion!

So, watch out - spiders are about!!

Cheerio

Roberta

[Dalucius]

You were lucky this time.

A little tip for people who leave gum boots (or shoes) outside on the verandah. Stretch an old stocking over the top it will prevent any unwanted guests.

[arpie]

That is a VERY good tip, Geoff!! Perfect for tall boots. I'll be checking every time from now on, I reckon!

Roberta

[Dalucius]

I will have to get Geoff to change his name. Everyone thinks Dalucius is him but it has been me for almost 40 years. Oh well.

[Trapper Tom]

Hey Roberta.

Glad to hear your yakking about again and the hips Ok. Have been watching your posts etc.

Noted in one of your last posts that you had lost your weed collection area for your blackies.

With winter comming on and the weed dying off don't forget that they love and resort to worms and nippers to tide them over.

Have nailed some crackers in the shoalhaven with those baits used as straight floaters.

As for the spider, yes I was also trained in entomology and yep its a huntsman. They look mean but really not so bad.

Also Just some totally useless information for you and other Raiders.

All spiders toxins are "Necrotic" ie its designed to either paralise/kill and then dissolve/liquify the internal contents of the prey so that the spider can then suck up the contents as food. Most spiders have very short fangs so bites tend to result in necrosis of the skin areas only. Bad enough, think white tailed spider reports about disolving skin (mind you this has been proven a myth for this species I beleieve).

But with say the funnal webb it can penetrate to sub-cutanious areas hence the seriousness of their bite. They are also extremely agressive.

Rule of thumb.

Any ground spider bite, serious trouble straight to hospital.

Any above ground spider (ie Trees etc) eh shouldn't be a prob.

Note also what is commonly called the "House spider" thats the one that lives in the corner of your windows and catchs flies, packs a really really serious punch hurtwise. And believe it or not so does the humble little "money spider" at about 2cm in size.

Stangely enough the same rule generally also applies to Aussie snakes.

Ground snakes generally highly venomous.

Above ground snakes no probs.

Now that I have passed on that totally and utterly useless piece of info on what is a fishing site I should get back to work.

PS I haven't posted for a while either but was at Hamilton Is last week and and got lots of Coral Trout and Golden Trevours going out and fishing from the hire dingies available there.

Cheers

Trapper Tom.

[arpie]

....it has been me for almost 40 years...... SO sorry - totally missed the 'MRS'!! And congrats on your 500th post, too!!

Hi TT - thanks for that info!! Very interesting, that analogy about ground or tree spiders!! Tho, there is actually a tree dwelling Funnelweb that is just as deadly as their ground hugging cousins! So I just don't trust any of 'em.

http://www.google.co...uLIWfiAeI4ImRBg

Luckily the one that bit me way back, was in a bush (hiding in the cloth I was drying) ...... the ambos engaged me in discussion for about an hour whilst they observed me & waited to see if I was going to have any side effects!!

I've also heard that funnelweb spiders can be 'driven from their holes' by the sound of an idling diesel engine. It apparently is a similar noise they hear when there is heavy rain - they don't want to get flooded, so they all pop out of their hidey holes!! So be careful with your diesels around your camping areas - only 'idle' for as little as you have to!!! Or else you may have some unwanted visitors!!!

Hoping to head out today for another fish! Hopefully the bream will find the hook today!! Hmmm, must get my nipper pump out again!! THanks for the reminder!

cheerio

Roberta

You'll find my pics of the Mouse spider on the http://www.findaspider.org.au/ website sometime soon!! He reckons they're the best he's seen of the male so far!

I was lucky to be able to retrieve the pics from my original posting to send to Ron of Findaspider as somehow I have lost all the originals of my pics for the whole of 2008!! Someone reckons they should be somewhere on the HD, but darned if I can find them!!!

Edited April 26, 2012 by Roberta

[zen801]

We have been over taken by bugs this season at our place due to all the rain. We have been over run by packs of possums, bandicoots, spiders, rabbits and bush turkeys. But the worst is bugs. Both my wife and I got smashed by ticks with each of us getting at least 100 bites. All the tick poison has both of us still suffering after almost 6 weeks. A guy I spoke to about it showed me a spider bite he got recently and he had a purple wound on his leg about 50cm diameter.

I am glad you didn't get bitten.

Mike

[onearmedfisho]

I HATE SPIDERS!!!

[arpie]

.....We have been over taken by bugs this season at our place due to all the rain....

That's a bugger, Mike!! Ticks are amazing, aren't they? My brother & I went down a narrow bush track to check out the fishing & we both came back with about 30 ticks on us - luckily we found them before they had done any damage - but a real pain to get out when they are that small, too!

We've got 9 bush turkeys digging up our garden & our lawn as we speak! We used to know of 2, that we assumed were 2 males - but somewhere, they found a female & Bingo! Lots of bush turkeys!! At least they don't bite, eh?

Shame about your buddy with the spider bite - I hope he got it checked out!

You take care out there, with all those bugs about!!

cheerio

Roberta